Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Address Unknown

Fascism in a crowd of two. RTR’s production explores what a mass movement of psychosis and violence feels like at the microscopic level – filtered through your best friend. When is that first day when something changes? Dramatic structure of solo letter-reading somewhat limits full engagement. Potential for deeper, slower story.

3 comments:

I saw this on Tuesday in a student matinee and it was incredible! Michael Mendolson, Mary Mac and Tobias Anderson ALL need to be readily commended for not only their theatrical quality, but also for their tenacity and strength in bringing this to a middle school/high school audience. School matinees are EXTREMELY difficult and bridging the generational gap is dfficult. Kudos also to David Bergson for making it happen as the educational coordinator and demanding respect from students who wouldn't give it otherwise! Students in that audience today heard a very important message and were privileged to see an extraoridnary piece of theatre! I felt privileged to experience it myself!

Thanks Kelly and Followspot for attending Address Unknown! All of us Unknowners are happy with the work and are especially blessed with the talkbacks -- to have had 14 opportunities (by the time the show closes) to sit with Holocaust survivors and scholars, and engage in dialogue with them and our audience, has been a rare priviledge.

We feel utterly changed by the experience, and are grateful to have 4 more chances to tell this tale before we close on Sunday. The critics, too, have been kind -- we are a pick in the Oregonian and WW, and the Trib said some very nice things about the project today.

Thanks for coming to the show, K, F, and all who managed to!

Everyone keep up the good work. Some terrific theatre going on in this town these days...

i urge you to see Address Unknown. a beautifully directed show; Tobias Anderson and Michael Mendleson are very powerful, thought provoking in a timely piece based on a small tome with a huge voice written in the mid 1930's by an Oregon Woman foreshadowing the War in Germany and Hitler's rise to power as a backdrop to explore in a heartbreakingly human way the power of personal choice (and ensuing results) we are given the opportunity to make every moment of our lives....and the eternal ramifications those choices can have on us as individual souls and collectively as part of a much larger whole.

At a time in our lives and the Life of our World when so much is resting on us truly claiming our moral core and not only standing our personal ground where we find it but also having the courage to claim responsibility for our actions/non-actions, this piece is a reminder of what can happen when good people are faced with hard questions made even more difficult because too much has been ignored or dismissed and our collective backs are against the wall. It is also important not to loose our History - especially as (seemingly) we've yet to learn from it.